Poland extends border controls: security guaranteed until April 2026!

Poland extends border controls: security guaranteed until April 2026!

Poland has extended its border controls with Germany and Lithuania until the beginning of April 2026. The decision was announced on October 1, 2025 by Poland's Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski in Warsaw. These controls were originally only planned until October 4, 2025. In the affected regions such as Hintersee, Pomellen and Linken in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, the Polish border guard, the regular police and the military police carry out random checks on travelers.

The aim of extending the controls is to monitor the so-called Belarus route. This route leads via the Baltic States to Western Europe and has become increasingly important in recent months. Over the last eight months, around 25,000 attempted illegal border crossings from Belarus to Poland were recorded. These figures reflect that pressure at the borders remains high and that the Polish authorities have continuously tried to prevent illegal entries.

Contexts and statistics

The situation at the borders is not an isolated phenomenon. As the Tagesschau reports, almost 25,000 attempted illegal border crossings were reported at the Polish-Belarusian border in the first eight months of 2025. These include almost 500 third-country nationals who entered Poland illegally from Lithuania. In addition, over 2,100 people were arrested attempting to cross from Poland to Germany, including nearly 550 people who had previously crossed the Polish-Belarusian border.

The Polish-Lithuanian border is also affected: between January and August 2025, around 60 smugglers who wanted to facilitate the migration of people to the EU were arrested. The background to these strict controls is not only the increasing number of attempted illegal entries, but also the reaction to Germany's increased border controls, which have been carried out randomly at the border with Poland since October 2023. These controls were significantly influenced by pressure from right-wing vigilante groups, whose activities have now declined sharply.

Border controls and migration

But how effective are these measures really? Migration researchers point out that there is no direct connection between border controls and the number of asylum applications in Germany. In 2024, around 250,900 people applied for asylum in Germany, which represents a decrease of around a third compared to the previous year. While the number of unauthorized border crossings into Germany fell by 36%, statistics show that most of these crossings occurred via the German-Polish border, with a third occurring via the Belarus route.

The total number of irregular border crossings in the EU fell to around 239,000 in 2024, a decrease of 38%. The routes to Europe in particular have changed, with many people seeking protection trying to gain entry through legal channels, for example from Colombia and Venezuela. Migration routes are rapidly adapting to new controls, again highlighting the complexity and dynamics of the situation.

Finally, it shows that border controls are not the only solution to reducing migration. At Europe's external borders, the challenge remains not only to ensure control, but also to avoid humanitarian crises and find sustainable solutions.

For more information about the controls and their background, visit the links: NDR, daily news, Media services integration.